British Conservatives in Paris Blog

What are your thoughts on how a less formal or so-called « unwritten » Constitution for the UK has allowed a large-majority Labour government to e.g. devolve political power to Scotland and Wales; change in a rather piecemeal fashion, representation in the House of Lords; establish a separate « Supreme Court »; sign the Lisbon Treaty granting further political integration within the EU?

A brief summary of the conclusions of the BCiP Study Group on the British Constitution is given below as background:

Why this (Dis)United Kingdom?
The current cultural, social, structural, institutional and economic pressures on Great Britain and Northern Ireland today, compounded by the influences of globalisation, membership of the European Union, mass immigration and devolution, are eroding the traditional sense of national identity or ?Britishness? and are not being managed within a coherent policy which would also encompass the so-called ?unwritten? constitution of a perceived (Dis)United Kingdom.
To provide an external view, therefore, the British Conservatives in Paris established a Constitutional Study Group which has worked over the past year 2008 to develop a report which describes the process adopted and considers the following issues: the place of Religion & the Church of England; the Monarchy and the House of Lords; Local Government and National Assemblies; Common Law versus Codified Law; Constitutional Structure and models from other countries; a Citizen?s Electoral Rights; Economics and the role of an independent Central Bank; Social Mobility and the ?Broken Society?; the place of Referenda in Representative Democracies.
Although a complete consensus of opinion was difficult to reach on the challenging task of addressing some of the fundamental constitutional principles which have evolved piecemeal in a sense and from as far back as Magna Carta, a number of general policy considerations have emerged from the discussions and subsequent analysis:
1. There is a case in a multiracial society for restating a set of fundamental principles and personal values i.e. what it means to be British, without excluding other faiths or those of a secular conviction.
2. The European dimension cannot be ignored with European Law e.g. on Human Rights being enforced via the Law Courts, a shifting of power from the British political system which could be undermined further if Britain moved to a more formal, codified Constitution based on the Continental models.
3. The House of Lords is a uniquely, British institution but a key part of the legislative process which needs to be reinforced in terms of both powers and diversity of elected representation.
4. Power should be restored to local government, giving more responsibility to the individual citizen in a less centralised State.
5. There should be a brake on any further drift to independence of the four home nations to maintain a strong and, therefore, influential nation state within the European Union.
6. Concerning social mobility and the ?Broken Society?, it is notable that the post-war German Constitution protects the status of the family with e.g. certain taxation laws being rewritten over the years to ensure more equity due to the financial burdens families assume.